On the Cosmic Origins of Carbon and Nitrogen

We analyze the behavior of N/O and C/O abundance ratios as a function of metallicity as gauged by O/H in large, extant Galactic and extragalactic H II region abundance samples. We compile and compare published yields of C, N, and O for intermediate mass and massive stars and choose appropriate yield sets based on analytical chemical evolution models fitted to the abundance data. We then use these yields to compute numerical chemical evolution models that satisfactorily reproduce the observed abundance trends and thereby identify the most likely production sites for carbon and nitrogen. Our results suggest that carbon and nitrogen originate from separate production sites and are decoupled from one another. Massive stars (M > 8 M_☉) dominate the production of carbon, while intermediate-mass stars between 4 and 8 M_☉, with a characteristic lag time of roughly 250 Myr following their formation, dominate nitrogen production. Carbon production is positively sensitive to metallicity through mass-loss processes in massive stars and has a pseudo-secondary character. Nitrogen production in intermediate mass stars is primary at low metallicity, but when 12 + log(O/H) > 8.3, secondary nitrogen becomes prominent, and nitrogen increases at a faster rate than oxygen—indeed, the dependence is steeper than would be formally expected for a secondary element. The observed flat behavior of N/O versus O/H in metal-poor galaxies is explained by invoking low star formation rates that flatten the age-metallicity relation and allow N/O to rise to observed levels at low metallicities. The observed scatter and distribution of data points for N/O challenge the popular idea that observed intermittent polluting by oxygen is occurring from massive stars following star bursts. Rather, we find most points cluster at relatively low N/O values, indicating that scatter is caused by intermittent increases in nitrogen caused by local contamination by Wolf-Rayet stars or luminous blue variables. In addition, the effect of inflow of gas into galactic systems on secondary production of nitrogen from carbon may introduce some scatter into N/O ratios at high metallicities.